Lost the big daddy twice

[steelhead_fishn]

A few friends and I fish this little lake up here near ridgefield that has produced well for us over the past few years. Two weeks ago I was fishing a titanium spinnerbait with a 4 inch power lizard and a bit of scent and I get a monster hit. I use a lami bass rod with quite a bit of backbone, and this fish was putting serious pressure on it. After fighting him for about a minute the crazy guy jumps out and shakes the hook. It was the biggest bass I think I've ever seen.(We catch 5 pound bass here about every other trip on average, on a crazy good night 2-3) images/icons/mad.gif Last night we went back to our usual spot, and the night started out as usual, with quite a few small strikes/fish. All of a sudden my friend starts hollering, a monster has slammed his topwater. After a short fight and a couple of nice jumps the fish decides he's had enough and snaps my partners line. I got quite a few glimpeses of this monster and he's a Bill Dance sized bass, 8+ pounds. Have any of you ever got your butt kicked by the same fish? I'm guessing it's the same fish, although there's more big guys in here. The biggest fish we've personally caught is a 7 pound female. The biggest we've seen caught is an 8 female that some idiot decided he needed to remove from the lake when she was full of egg's. images/icons/mad.gif Have you ever gotten your butt kicked by a fish over and over? images/icons/wink.gif

[Tanner]

Luthian,
A friend of mine and I were fishing the Kilchis one day for Winter Steelhead. He had purchased some really cheap off brand hooks and I was giving him crap all day. We got to the bottom of the pipeline hole, anchored up and he started drift fishing while I was tying up a new drift rig. All of a sudden I heard him say "Fish On" I looked up and he had a fish and then all of a sudden his line went limp. He cussed, reeled in and cast again. " Fish On". I looked up again and his line went limp. Three times he ended up hooking and loosing a fish in this small slot before I could even get my line in the water. I got my rig finished, put on a clump of eggs and cast out. "Fish On" a nice 7 lb buck to the boat. "Hey Todd, you want to use some of my hooks" He was ******. images/icons/grin.gif

[Perfect Drift]

Luthian, Would you mind sharing your fishin
hole with other catch and release bassers?
I live in Vanc. and would love to get away from Lacamas and the water skiers.

[SailCat]

Hi, Luthian-

I believe that most fish are lost due to a boneheaded mistake on the angler's part, and that big fish are tuned in through mysterious forces of nature to strike when an error is at hand or about to take place.

OK ... perhaps I'm kidding about the 'mysterious forces' part, but that's when big fish seem to strike for me ....

I was bank-fishing a favorite private farm pond with light spinning gear and got snagged on some unseen object. I know better than to stress a rod or try to whip it loose under such circumstances, so I dutifully cranked the drag down tightly, pointed the rod tip at the snag and, turning my back so as not to get a faceful of hooks in the event of a high-tension release, walked in the opposite direction until the line broke.

I re-tied and on the next cast hooked a real bruiser of a fish. Yikes! Drag's still cranked down tight! I fumbled with it, but too late. The fish broke off.

Cursing my stupidity, I retied, making sure that the knot was good and re-cast, still thinking about making such a newroid mistake when I'm s'posed to know how to fish and ... there he is! Another (or perhaps the same) monster fish!

Yep ... while cursing the darkness I had forgotten to light that little candle ... the drag was still cranked down and, yes, the fish broke off again.

I don't s'pose I need to mention that I did set the drag correctly after the second loss ... and didn't hook another fish that evening ....

~Michael T.